YZ Circuit East: Gifu's Beginner-Friendly Drift Track (2026)

If Ebisu is where you go to drift a mountain and Meihan is where you go to get judged by a wall, YZ Circuit East is where you go to actually learn. This small circuit in Mizunami, Gifu — deep in the Chubu region between Nagoya and the mountains — runs one of the friendliest beginner drift scenes in Japan. It’s also one of the most confusing tracks to book if you can’t read Japanese, because everything happens over email, and the slot system decides whether you’re even allowed to drift that hour.

Here’s the whole system, decoded from the official pages.

The 50-minute slot system (and the even-number rule)

YZ East doesn’t sell “drift days.” It sells 50-minute free-run slots, numbered 1G to 8G, running 9:00 to 16:50. The rule that matters:

Odd slots are grip only. Even slots are mixed — drifting allowed.

A free run (フリー走行, furii sōkō) is Japan’s standard open-lapping format: pay for a slot, share the track, no instruction. Book an odd slot by mistake and you’ll spend 50 minutes watching time-attack traffic you can’t slide around.

Two wrinkles worth knowing. On weekdays, slots 5G onward only run on reservation — booked by 8:00 that same morning — so an unannounced afternoon visit can find the gate shut. And on a full-day ticket you get seven slots (1G–7G), not eight.

There’s also the P course, a paved practice area where a slot means low-speed fundamentals: donuts and figure-eights, three cars maximum at a time. If you have never initiated a drift in your life, this is the single cheapest, lowest-pressure place in Japan to fix that.

2026 fees

Payment for free running is cash only — no cards. Bring yen.

House rules from the official pages: a driving licence is required (no licence, no driving), open-top cars need a roll bar or cage strong enough to protect the driver in a rollover, and the circuit is closed Tuesdays. Gate opens at 8:00 on normal days.

Booking: email or nothing

There is no online booking system and no phone reservation for free runs. You email [email protected] with your date, the slot you want, your name, address, phone number and car. The window runs from 30 days before your date up to the running day itself (same-day booking costs the ¥4,500 rate; weekday afternoon slots need the email in by 8:00 that morning).

Two practical notes from the circuit’s own instructions: always put the event or booking name in the subject line — subject-less emails risk the spam folder — and don’t panic if the reply takes a day or two; the circuit says responses can be slow. For organized track days, the same address and format apply, with the event name as the subject.

The beginner track-day calendar

This is YZ East’s real selling point. A rotating cast of organizers runs coached beginner days here nearly every month — sōkōkai (走行会), organized track days, as opposed to open free runs. Confirmed 2026 dates from the official calendar (verified 2026-07-21):

• CDA Drift Beginner Day — Aug 6. ¥11,500 (members ¥10,000). Run by circuit staff with instructors; explicitly aimed at people starting from zero. P course open all day.
• Chibikko Gang Weekday Drift Days — Aug 21, Sep 18, Oct 16, Nov 20, Dec 18. ¥10,000. Monthly Friday sessions with advice for first-timers; also used as practice for the regional D1 NEXT series. (“Chibikko Gang” is the local organizing crew — the name means roughly “little rascals,” and the vibe matches.)
• MJ Style Beginner Practice #8 — Aug 26. ¥10,000. Small-capacity beginner practice hosted by pro driver Hayato Miyoshi’s MJ Style.
• Chibikko Gang 215GP Rd.2 — Oct 11. A one-make drift contest on budget Kenda KR20 tires (215/45R17 only) — deliberately cheap, deliberately casual.
• Chibikko Gang Year-End Drift Day — Dec 30. ¥10,000 until a week before, then ¥12,000.

For spectating rather than driving: the D1 NEXT Middle West regional series holds Rd.4 at YZ East on Nov 1 and Rd.5 on Dec 13.

Foreigner participation, rentals and English support are all officially unstated for these days — TBC. Nothing on the official site says foreigners can’t join, and the entry process is the same email everyone else sends, but go in expecting Japanese-language paperwork on the day.

Getting there

The circuit sits in Mizunami, Gifu prefecture. The official site publishes only a map image rather than written directions, so plan on a car — this is rural Chubu, and public-transport access is not something the circuit advertises. Nagoya is the sensible base city for a trip that includes YZ East.

Where YZ East fits in a Japan trip

Be honest about what this track is: a small local circuit, not a destination complex. You come here because you’re in the Nagoya/Chubu leg of a trip and you want real seat time cheap — ¥4,000 for 50 minutes is among the lowest entry costs in Japanese drifting — or because you’re a genuine beginner and want one of the coached days above instead of being thrown into open traffic at a bigger venue. For that specific job, nowhere in the region does it better.